


Twenty Minute Drive

by marizousbooty



Series: Twenty Minutes [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Minor Angst, POV Multiple, Two Shot, angst with happy ending, past nyma/lance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-08 03:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14685087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marizousbooty/pseuds/marizousbooty
Summary: Nyma wants to talk to Lance again.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HEY sorry for that uh extended absence things have been super hectic, I'm transferring to a university in the fall and I'm getting my associates degree in two weeks (yay!). This is a two part bit with part two following within the next week or so, before my graduation for sure.  
> fun fact tho! 20 mins has a LOT of things incorporated from my real life, like specific events and locations (like the part they were turned away from the roller skating rink cause there was a reserved party, yeah that happened and I wasn't too upset about that lmao). This has grown to be somewhat of an outlet for me.  
> I'm really happy everyone has enjoyed this so far, this fun thing I do between big projects. This one is a little more serious than the others because haha it's been a little more serious for me lately. But writing these makes everything easier more fun, relaxing, and most of all, it's freeing.  
> hope you enjoy! Shout out to Alli for giving it a once over to make sure my grammar isn't complete shit then messaging me a "fuuuuuuuuuuuuck dude"

“She’s in my women’s studies class and I kind of want to leave,” Lance groaned.

“Don’t they only offer women’s studies for the spring semesters? What are you gonna do then?” Hunk asked.

“Suffer, I guess.”

“Hey, it’ll be fine. Just ignore her and sit as far away as you can,” Hunk said, rubbing a soothing hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Light’s green.”

Lance bit his lip and drove forward with the line of cars. “It’s hard to, you know? We were together for three years before I caught her with that Rolo guy. I cried for a solid week it hurt so much. It still hurts sometimes, like it was me who did something wrong that made her lose interest like that.”

“Stop that,” Hunk squeezed Lance’s shoulder and pulled away. “We went over this already. It was her shitty mistake and had nothing to do with you.” 

“I know, I know. It’s been what, five months?” Lance sighed. “I’ve only been with Keith for not even three yet, it’s still raw. But…”

“But?”

“I’m really happy with Keith. It’s too soon to know anything about our future, so I’m not gonna think about it and just live day by day with him.”

“That’s the spirit! Drive around that way, it’ll be easier to get to the door,” Hunk directed. 

“Aye aye, cap’n.” Lance turned into the shopping center parking lot and navigated around the side Hunk pointed to and pulled to a stop outside Target. “Have a good day at work, sweetie.” 

Hunk got out of the car and stared at Lance for a second. “I really don’t want to be here but I want money.” 

“Is it worth it?” 

“I ask myself that a lot. Pick me up at midnight.” Hunk shut the car door and headed toward the automatic doors with a wave and a quick tug of his red shirt.

Lance wanted to sigh and slam his head against the steering wheel in frustration, but the Wendy’s across the street was calling him.

Once parked and with a four for four meal and a frosty in his lap, he called Keith.

“What’s up?” Keith answered on the second ring.

“Should I drop my women’s studies class because my ex is in there or nah?” He asked without so much as a greeting. He put his phone on speaker and put it on his dashboard so he could eat and talk to Keith at the same time.

“No?”

“No? Wouldn’t you be, like, jealous I’m in a class with my ex so close?” 

“No? She’s your ex, and I don’t think you’ll do anything with someone you hate.” Keith sounded confused

“True. I’m gonna set that selfie you sent me last week as my lock screen so if she gets too close I can ‘check the time’ and she can see your beautiful face.”

“Isn’t it already your home screen? I thought you really liked that picture of Joe Biden as your lock screen.”

Lance took a second to rip into his cheeseburger and swallowing before he answered back. “Yeah, but you’re a little cuter than Joe Biden.”

“A  _ little _ ?” Keith gasped indignantly.

“Yeah,” Lance said between a mouthful of fries. “Hey, when I’m done eating want me to pick you up and we can go see a movie?”

“I already saw everything I wanted to that’s out, so I’m down for whatever, sure.”

“ _ Shape of Water _ ?”

“Again? Yeah okay, it’s a good movie.”

All worries of Nyma were pushed to the back of Lance’s head when he took Keith out to see  _ Shape of Water  _ for the third time, ate Taco Bell in a Home Depot parking lot, and had a good make out session in the back of Lance’s car that was cut short when Hunk called saying he got out of work early.

It even slipped his mind when he sauntered into class the next Thursday, a Starbucks in his hand and sunglasses perched on his head, without a single care in the world and spotted Nyma sitting by his seat from last class. He took care to sit on the clear opposite side of the room from her. There was no way he was letting her near him, he swore to himself.

That was fruitless, in the end, when the professor reminded they they had group presentations that start next week and they needed to pick groups and days to present on. Lance could  _ feel  _ Nyma’s eyes boring holes into him when they broke to find groups. He dutifully ignored it, and asked the girl next to him if she would want to be in his group. They needed a third and Nyma swooped in and took that spot with a shiny grin and a bat of her purple-eyeshadow laddened eyes.  He couldn’t even protest; his partner had agreed for them.

“So, what should we present on?” Nyma asked, eyes roving over the list.

“We could do women in the workforce. The date’s far away enough that it gives us time to work, but not too close to any exams,” the girl, Plaxum was her name, suggested.

“I’m down. Early March isn’t really close to midterms.” Lance noted.

“Okay cool, I’ll go put our names in. Lance and Nyma, right?” Plaxum asked.

They nodded and Plaxum got up to sign them up. It was undeniably  _ incredibly  _ awkward between Lance and Nyma now. He didn’t want to talk to her, didn’t want to be around her at all, really. The atmosphere was thick and cloying with awkwardness. He chose to take out his phone, the lock screen flickering on to the picture of Keith he’d changed it to. It was one of his favorites of him; sporting a monotonous expression and messy hair with a worn SIA shirt that was obviously Lance’s and posed with a mug shaped like a toilet at a nearby Goodwill. He tilted his phone so Nyma could get a good look before he unlocked it with a tap of his thumb. 

“Hey, Lance?” Nyma started. “Can we talk after class?”

He hummed in response. He doesn’t want to, absolutely not. “I can’t, gotta jet after this.”

“You still have my number, right? I really want to talk to you soon, it’s important.”

“I deleted it.” He casually angled his phone a little toward Nyma so she could see he opened a text chat with Keith, which was affectionately labeled with “Keef” with a heart, heart eyes, and knife emojis.

“Oh, well, here’s my number again. We need to meet up about the group project soon anyway,” Nyma slipped him a scrap of paper with a number neatly written in neon pink on it.

“Sure, yeah. Whatever.”

He patted himself on the back later for handling it so well. He only had what, fifteen more weeks and a group project with her? He can totally do it.

Keith was sprawled across Lance’s bed, a fidget spinner he found in the depth of Lance’s comforter spinning awkwardly in his hand when the topic of Nyma came up again.

“You’re not even using it right,” Lance frowned from his spot at his desk. “Just use your pointer finger to spin it, not your other hand.”

“This is stupid. Why do you even have it?”

Lance hesitated. “Nyma got it for me as a gag gift.”

Keith stopped spinning the fidget spinner and arched a brow at Lance. “How is your class with Nyma anyway?”

“It’s. . . alright, I guess.” Lance said. “She sits behind me and tries pulling me into group discussions and private chats after class.” 

“She seems civil,” Keith said and sat up to sit cross-legged in the middle of Lance’s bed. “You guys never got closure.”

“No, um,” Lance hesitated. He’s actually never told Keith how it all went down. There was never really a need to. “I walked in on her and an acquaintance of mine making out at her place. We had an argument, we said some things we shouldn’t have, and never spoke again. An unanimous agreement it was over. I mean, after I cried for like a week I realized it was already coming. We’d been drifting further apart toward the end of the relationship to where we’d get into arguments a lot over petty things and we’d be talking less and less.” 

“So she cheated on you with that guy because you two just didn’t have a spark or whatever anymore?” Keith’s eyes were glowing with a righteous fury. Lance quickly reached out and covered Keith’s fist with his own hand. 

“Probably? Dude, it’s okay, I’m over it.” Lance rubbed a soothing circle on the back of Keith’s hand. “Besides, I met you not even a week after we broke up and I swore it was love at first sight.” 

Keith’s eyes widened to the size of saucers, a blazing blush graced his cheeks. “I-I actually felt the same way. I thought you were cute and I planned on getting your number from Hunk, but he invited me to the pancake house before I got the guts to say anything.” 

“Oh jeez,” Lance threw back his head and laughed. “The day I met you I swore to Hunk that I was going to take a break from dating for a while, then I saw you and told him I had a crush. He was pretty disappointed in me.” 

Keith grinned a dazzling smile and tugged Lance from his desk to the bed. They fell back in a heap of limbs. “I’m kind of disappointed, too. But I’m happier that you liked me back.” 

“Dude, that’s gay,” Lance said and snuggled into Keith’s arms.

“We’re cuddling in your bed right now, that’s not very hetero,” Keith snickered.

“Make it gayer and kiss me, you fool,” Lance said. Keith obliged.

The women’s studies presentation was coming up fast, which Plaxum dutifully reminded Lance the next class meeting. 

“Let’s meet up this week and get things started. How does Wednesday afternoon sound?” She suggested after class.Lance and Nyma agreed they could both make it.

Wednesday came too fast and before he knew it, he was in a study room with Plaxum and Nyma with their laptops out and textbooks cracked open. Lance made sure to sit as far away from Nyma as possible with Plaxum acting as a human barrier between them.

Thankfully, besides the tense atmosphere between the two, the meeting went well and they got a lot of stuff done. Lance would even admit he had a good time. Plaxum was fun to hang out with and even made it easy to forget the tension between him and Nyma. 

Toward the end of the second hour things fell apart.

“Sorry, I need to go. My brother needs a ride,” Plaxum sighed and and shut her laptop with a quite snap. 

“We got a lot done, so it’s okay. See you in class tomorrow,” Nyma said.

Once Plaxum left, she took that easy air with her. The atmosphere felt ten times heavier with just him and Nyma sitting in the private room. He texted Keith an update on the situation.

“So, I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” Nyma cut through the tension like it was nothing. Lance felt sweat condensing on his back. 

“I don’t. Let’s finish this project and leave, alright?” he said curtly.

“No.” Nyma turned in her seat to face him, shutting her laptop so it wasn’t in her way. Lance hunched closer to his. “I want to talk to you. About us.”

“It’s over, Nyma. We’re through. There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Yes, there is.”

Lance stood up straight and glared daggers at her. “I have a boyfriend now. He’s sweet and wonderful and makes me very  _ happy. _ If you will excuse me, I need to go home to him, he texted me saying he got us Chipotle.” He hurredly stood and started cramming his things into his backpack.

Nyma’s eyes narrowed sharply, painted lips twisted into a frown. “Look, Lance, I want us to be civil. We’re both adults. I just want-”

“Nope. You stopped being civil the moment you cheated on me. Why should I give you the time of day?”

“Because I still like you!”

Lance couldn’t help but hesitate for the briefest second. “Should have thought of that before you messed up, Nyma. See you tomorrow.” And with that, Lance bolted from the suffocatingly tiny room.

Once he was safely locked in his car, chest heaving and lungs burning from running across the parking lot. He clutched the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip and took a deep, steadying breath. It took a few moments to calm down before he threw himself into an anxiety attack. 

The wounds healed into pink-tainted scars had now popped a few invisible stitches and were rubbed raw. It hurt to be around her still, but he liked this class too much to drop it. Why would he risk his academics over  _ her _ ? She wasn’t worth it.

Apparently, neither was he.

That night, after falling to sleep FaceTiming Keith, he dreamed of Nyma and him as if they were still together. He laid in bed ten minutes too long thinking about the what if’s and what to do’s.

Lance rolled out of bed with the resolve to talk to her, to find that closure they desperately needed.

Despite his new resolution, he still avoided her outside of class. He  _ might  _ have told Plaxum that she was an ex and wanted to stay away from her as much as possible, which she agreed to act as a buffer between the two.

“Thanks, girl, you’re the best,” he had told her. “I’m sorry to cause all this trouble.”

“No, no, don’t even say that,” she said, tugging one of her messy blue pigtails over her shoulder and twisting it around her finger. “I was oblivious to the mood and asked her to join without your honest answer, so let me make it up by alleviating some of the pressure between you two, ‘kay?”

The week of the presentation rolled around, and he still avoided Nyma. He felt bad for putting it off, but felt tremendously worse not telling Keith about what was going on. It just never felt like the right time to bring it up, but he felt like a major asshole and hypocrite who had no right to preach about communication in relationships when he wasn’t even telling Keith what was up. And he knows Keith knows there’s something up. Keith’s a bit dense when it comes to emotions in others, but he was able to pick up on Lance’s more muted behavior that there was something on his mind. 

“Hey, you alright?” Keith asked, the night before the presentation. Lance was putting the finishing touches on his notecards when Keith sat down next to him on Keith’s bed. “You’ve been sort of. . . out of it, I guess?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, stressed about this presentation and that paper.” Lance wanted to smack himself for wasting an opening, but the notecards screamed at him  _ not now! Not now! Focus on me!  _ “Gimme a few days and I’ll be good again, don’t worry.”

Keith frowned. He didn’t buy it. “Lance, are you sure? If there’s something bothering you, then come talk to me about it. I’m your boyfriend, I want you to share stuff with me.” He said it slow, each word measured on his tongue before spoken.

He must have talked to Hunk or Shiro about what it. Boy, was Lance in trouble.

“Babe, listen,” he put down his pen and shifted to fully face Keith. “I do have something on my mind, but I. . . Don’t know how to talk about it yet? I plan on resolving it real soon.”

“Is it Nyma?” Keith’s eyes narrowed darkly.

Lance flinched. Spot on. “Yeah, yeah it is. I’m sorry about keeping you in the dark, but can we talk about this tomorrow? I still have to work on my British Lit paper.”

“Promise?”

Keith’s eyes looked too sad for Lance’s liking, and he hated knowing he’s the one that did that to him. He needed to get his shit together and stop avoiding everything. 

“I promise,” Lance said. He raised his pinky and Keith intertwined his with Lance’s. He tugged Lance into a kiss that pulled a giggle from his chest. Keith pulled back first and took a second to gaze at Lance with hooded eyes and a gentle smile. Lance’s heart swelled at the sight.

“Get back to work.” Keith patted his cheek and stood up. “I’m gonna make some tea. Want some, too?”

“Sure, do you have anymore of that lavender chamomile stuff?” Lance shifted back into his spot and hunched back over his flashcards.

“Teaspoon of sugar?”

“Yes, please.” 

Keith headed to the kitchen and Lance could hear him bustling about the kitchen getting a pot of water in the stove. Lance sighed and leaned back into Keith’s pillow. He rolled to his side and took a deep breath. The smell of unwashed sheets and Keith’s shampoo. 

He was going to talk to Nyma after the presentation tomorrow, then he’ll come home and talk to Keith about everything that was going on and maybe make out a bit on one of their beds. Preferably his, it was awkward when Shiro was in the other room. 

With a sigh he sat back up, rolled his shoulders with a satisfying pop, and went back to work with a newfound resolve. 

The next morning, their presentation went off without a hitch.

By some miracle, all three of them managed to pull their weight and had a really good presentation, maybe even one of the best ones by far that semester. Giddy with the hype of pulling it off, Lance cornered Nyma in the hall after class. 

His heart beat a million miles an hour in his throat, and hands shook with trepidation. It was time to end it.

“Nyma? Can we talk?” He asked tentatively to her outside the classroom door.

She turned around and blinked owlishly for a second before her face broke out into a dazzling grin. Lance’s heart jumped at the sight. “Sure. Let’s get out of the hallway so we’re not blocking anyone.”

They trekked down the staircase and out the side door into a secluded area behind the humanities building. There was a seating area under an alcove, with fake grass and stone blocks to sit on. Nyma took a seat  on the ground with her back to one, tossing a plate of blonde hair over one shoulder and patted the spot next to her. He sat down with a foot of space between them.

There was a tense moment of silence. Lance didn’t want to start, didn’t even know where to start.

“I’m sorry,” she said suddenly. “We should have talked. I should have told you everything on my mind, but I didn’t. I was scared you’d get upset, or hurt you in some way, but I. . . I couldn’t help myself. What I did was wrong to you. I do still like you, I still feel that love I had for you, but I know you’ve moved on and I don’t want to push myself on you.”

“I forgive you.”

Nyma whipped around and stared at him wide eyed. “After all that, you forgive me? Lance, I made out with Rolo in front of you. I snuck around with him for  _ weeks  _ and you forgive me?”

Lance sighed deeply. “You did fuck up pretty royally, but yeah. I forgive you. You acknowledged your mistake and apologized for it.”

“You’re unbelievable.”

“I know,” Lance grinned and turned to face her fully. “I’m sorry for calling you those things, that was kind of heat of the moment and I hate that I did that, but,” Lance held up his pointer finger, “I’m still a little hesitant to trust you again, but you were one of my best friends before we started going out. I miss you a lot, but as a friend, you know? I’m really happy with Keith and I wouldn’t date you again even if I wasn’t with him.”

Nyma laughed. “Gee thanks. But that’s understandable. I fucked up pretty bad. Can we at least be friends again?”

“A tentative friendship, sure,” Lance smiled weakly. “I’m not gonna call us friends again, but let’s hang out sometime, go get some In-N-Out or something.” He took a second to check his phone and jolted in alarm when he noticed the time. “Shoot, I gotta go. I have a late lunch date with Keith and he’s supposed to be picking me up.”

He stood up and brushed the back of his jeans off and offered a hand out to help Nyma stand. She hoisted herself and they found themselves face to face. They kept their hands linked. Lance tried to tug his hand back but she kept it in her grip. She was a few inches taller than him but used that extra height to her advantage to tower over him in that moment.

“Are you happy with him?” She asked. Her eyes grew sad and soft.

“With Keith?” Lance felt his cheeks warm. “Yeah, yeah I’m. . . really happy. He’s great to me and I hope I’m great to him, too.”

She smiled gently. “I’m glad. Maybe we can have a double date one day.”

“He kind of wants to kill you, so probably not in the  _ near  _ future.”

“Makes sense,” she laughed and finally let go of his hand. “Let’s talk again soon, ‘kay?”

Lance let a smile break across his face. “I’ll see you around.” He hoisted his bag back on his shoulder and with a wave he took off around the sidewall of the building and up the staircase leading toward the upper walkways and parking lot where Keith was supposed to be waiting for him.

Keith’s Honda wasn’t anywhere in sight, so he didn’t feel guilty taking so long with Nyma. He gave him a call.

The phone rang for a little too long before Keith picked up.

“What?” Keith snapped through the receiver.

“Whoa calm down. You okay? Where are you?”

“Driving. I’m fine.”

He didn’t sound okay. “You sure? You sound on edge. We can skip lunch and just relax at one of our places if you’re worked up about something-”

“I don’t want to see you right now, okay?” Keith hissed. “Go have lunch with Nyma or something, we can talk later.”

With that sharp response that punctured the a hole in his lungs, Keith hung up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They talk it out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow here's part 2 bless alli for finishing betaing it anyway it's finals week but im here to dump the conclusion of this trainwreck on you

Keith had left the car idling to go grab Lance, surprise him outside his class with the coupon for Souplantation he found in Shiro’s laundry. He trekked around the upper parking lot, taking the back way to the humanities building with the intention of cutting through the seating area and straight to the back door of Lance’s class.

Lance has been tense and distant lately. Midterms weren’t for another couple weeks, and he doesn’t think it’s work. Last night, he admitted that the problem laid with Nyma, and he promised to talk about it today. Keith, as awful as it sounds, jumped headfirst off a cliff and into a hot ocean of conclusions. 

But Lance isn’t that kind of guy. He wasn’t going to leave Keith because Nyma was interested again. He even told Keith about how much it’d hurt, so why would he go back?

His heart leaped to his throat and cut off his breath when he caught sight of Nyma and Lance, standing hand in hand and with goofy smiles on their faces. Heat flared through his core, anger bubbled up to the surface of his skin. He didn’t trust himself to not kill someone, so he turned and fled. 

He slammed the door to his car shut and pulled out of his spot too fast and too hard, made wide turns and went at least twenty over the speed limit, thinking that if he went fast enough he could ignore the burning in his throat and the prickle of tears in his eyes. 

There has to be a rational explanation for it all. 

His phone rang out loud in the car, cutting through whatever radio station he had playing to announce it was a call from Lance. He hesitated, almost let the call drop, and decided to answer. 

“What?” Keith gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. 

“Whoa calm down. You okay? Where are you?” Lance’s voice broke through the car stereo. 

“Driving. I’m fine.” He wasn’t. 

Lance pauses. “You sure? You sound on edge. We can skip lunch and just relax at one of our places if you’re worked up about something-”

“I don’t want to see you right now, okay?” Keith hissed. “Go have lunch with Nyma or something, we can talk later.”

He ended the call and took a sharp turn down a residential street that he knew lead to a back passageway through the regional park and  _ away  _ from everything. 

Twenty minutes later, at the end of a long, winding road with spotty cell service, he reached the lookout point. He left his jacket in the car and took his phone, earbuds, and sunglasses with him and took the short trek up the hill a bit where there was a picnic bench and some big rocks to climb up on. 

At the top, he plopped down on a flat boulder and spread himself out with a sigh, taking in the view. The late winter air was chilly, but the sun was warm enough that it was relaxing to sunbathe like this. The scenery sprawled out below him was a mix of large cacti, trees starting to green, and shrubbery of varying shades of browns and greens over the rolling hills. It was topped with a brilliant blue sky dotted with the fluffiest white clouds that would drag a large shadow overhead every once in a while. A few native birds chirped peacefully around him. His hands still shook. 

He leaned back and plugged in his earbuds, turning the volume down low so it was simply background noise to the wind and birds. 

Keith didn’t trust himself to face Lance yet. Lance probably had a good explanation for what he saw, but he didn’t trust himself to talk with him without snapping or doing something rash. He told himself everyday that no, Lance wasn’t like that, he’s a good guy and wouldn’t leave Keith like that. 

Anxiety ate away at his core. It had been festering for a while now. With Lance acting so weird, Keith thought he was gonna want to break up with him. The possibility of him wanting to break up jumped from a measly 25% to a 99.98% chance. 

He would let him. If Lance said he wanted to leave, Keith would let him go. Why force him to stay with Keith, someone who was so unworthy of love in the first place? Keith would admit, he was kind of shocked when Lance said he’d liked him for a while and also crushed on him back when they first met in the Starbucks on that sweltering hot August afternoon. He still remembers the shine of mischief in his eyes (though knowing what he knew now, that might as well had been tears), the prominent dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose and the planes of his cheekbones (the same freckles he watched fade away over winter), the lips that pulled back into a dazzling smile (the same lipshe later learned what they felt like on his own, his cheeks, his neck, his chest. . .). 

Maybe it was time to let him go. Keith still had to focus on getting his transfer applications done, and more shifts to work over the summer. He doesn’t have time for a boyfriend, he reasoned.

That’s a big fat lie. He always has time for a boyfriend. Lance always found a way to wiggle himself into a neat little spot in Keith’s hectic life. He didn’t want to let him leave that spot quite yet. 

Keith could be overreacting. It might have all been a misunderstanding and he blew it all out of proportion. But a prodding voice, a snively little voice he hated listening too, told him that Lance would have a very good reason to go behind Keith’s back and leave him. Why would Lance want to date Keith in the first place? He was just a rebound, right? And now Nyma probably wanted him again and he jumped at the opportunity to get back the girl he swore he was going to marry a long time ago. 

The gravel crunching under car tiles jerked Keith out of his stupor. A cloud of dust erupted from the ground below as a familiar white car pulled up next to Keith’s. 

He huffed and laid back down on his boulder and dutifully ignored the lanky figure emerging from the car. 

“Keith, what’s wrong?” Lance called from below. Keith turned up his music slightly, just enough to drown out Lance. He knew he was being petty, but he wasn’t ready to face the inevitable. A rock was pelted at the bottom of his shoe. Keith ignored it.

There was a few moments of silence Keith used to fight back oncoming tears. 

Lance’s face suddenly leaned over Keith’s, effectively shielding him from the sun, but trapping him under Lance.

“Oh baby, what happened?” Lance said softly when he noticed the tear tracks racing down Keith’s cheeks and into his hairline. Lance reached out to brush away the tears, but Keith slapped his hand away and rolled out from under him. 

“Don’t touch me,” Keith hissed. He scrambled down from the boulder and stumbled away from Lance and toward his car. 

“What happened? Keith, talk to me!” Lance climbed back down the boulder and followed Keith down the dirt path to the cars.

“You know  _ exactly  _ what happened!” Keith snapped.

“No, I don’t,” Lance said, panic lacing his words. “I’m not a mind reader, you need to tell me what’s bothering you so I can  _ help.” _

It was too soon. He didn’t have enough time to calm down, he was going to blow. Keith was shaking, throat tight, and tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. He wasn’t ready. White-hot anger flooded his senses, instead.

“Why should I? You wouldn’t tell me anything, either,” Keith spat. He stopped and spun around to face Lance fully. Even shielded behind his sunglasses, Keith could still see the lines of gold weaving through Lance’s hair from the early afternoon sun. It hurts to look at. 

Lance visibly flinched at the words. “Keith, I was a little pressed for time last night to really get into details of what’s been going on. I’m in a better headspace now, so I want to tell you everything.”

Keith leaned against the side of his car and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re cheating on me with Nyma, huh.” He could barely mumble the words.

“I-what?” Lance looked taken aback, blinking rapidly in confusion. “No? No! What?! Oh my God, don’t tell me that’s what you’re thinking?!”

Hesitantly, Keith nodded. Heat flooded his cheeks, in shame or anger, he doesn’t know.

“Keith,  _ no, _ ” Lance groaned. “Where did you get that idea from?”

“You’ve been distant lately, weirdly tense and quite,” Keith started. He felt his anger flush out into a muted heat, calmed for now, but ready to blow at a moments notice. “I-I’m bad at initiating things between us, and with you being so off, our whole dynamic is off. I asked Hunk and Shiro what to do and they said I should just talk to you first, but then you said you  _ did  _ have something on your mind and it was Nyma and I got scared. I was scared you’d go back to her because even though she treated you that way, she’s still  _ better  _ than me. And then I got a Souplantation coupon and I wanted to surprise you with it after class and walk you to the car, maybe pick a flower on the way ‘cause you were so tense about that presentation, and like, I saw you with Nyma out in the grass area holding hands and looking like, well, like you  _ didn’t  _ hate her guts and I ran.”

Lance didn’t make a motion to stop Keith from speaking, just silent listened with eyes full of a deep intent to make it all better. His jaw clenched and his brows furrowed when Keith said he saw him with Nyma outside.

“Hey, I’m really sorry,” Lance said. His shoulders slumped and he tilted his head back with a sigh. “This is all a big mess because I suck at communicating and you got all stressed out and weird because I’m stressed out and weird, but it’s not that deep, okay?”

“What?” 

“Nyma’s been on my mind, and not in that way,” Lance said quickly. “She’s been in my class and pressuring to talk to me, and I’ve been wanting to figure out a way we can still have a happy ending. I’ll be honest, I still have some leftover feelings for her, you know? Like, Nyma residue on my skin. It hasn’t been that long since we broke up and we ended too abruptly to get proper closure. I finally said fuck it today, and I went to talk to her. We got some things off our chest and decided maybe we can try and be tentative friends again. And I guess you walked in at the wrong moment?”

“So you’re . . .?” Keith trailed off.

“There’s literally nothing, absolutely nothing romantic between me and Nyma, I promise,” Lance said firmly. “We want to try and be friends again, ‘try’ being the keyword here. You don’t have to worry about us because I’m so head over heels in love with you Keith, it makes me dizzy sometimes.”

Keith was taken aback by Lance’s sudden declaration. He said he was dizzy, but suddenly it was Keith who felt dizzy. A different kind of heat flooded his face, sweltering hot and the dazzling kind of red that left him breathless. 

“I- I didn’t hear you,” Keith feigned. He pressed his back onto the side of his car, as if it was an anchor that could hold him down. “What was that last part?”

Lance rolled his eyes, his face a shade darker, too. A goofy grin broke across his face and he said, “I’m so in love with you it’s crazy. I love holding your hand and kissing your pretty face and having you as my lockscreen to show off to people.” Keith couldn’t help but cover his own flaming red face. Lance stepped closer and tried to pry his hands away while he continued to talk. “You make everything so much nicer, easier even. I know how weird you can get with people chewing too loudly, or if the bedroom door isn’t cracked open just the right amount, or even when you kick my ass in Mario Kart. I love all of that and I’m willing to put in the work to keep you here with me, okay?”

“Lance?” Keith said, slightly muffled from behind his hands. “I love you, too. I’m sorry about freaking out like that, I just. . . It’s hard sometimes.”

“I know. And that’s okay. Just  _ talk  _ to me, babe. Even the most stupid, insignificant things.” Lance finally managed to successfully tug Keith’s hands away from his face. Keith looked up and was graced with the sight of Lance, framed in a halo of dazzling light and with the softest, most vulnerable expression on his face that Keith’s ever seen. “I don’t care, you can tell me about every seemingly insignificant part in your life, because that’s all important stuff to me, ‘cause you’re so important.”

Keith’s heart was wreaking havoc in his chest, beating a mile a second, but brimming with so much adoration for this man. What did he possibly do to deserve him? He couldn’t think of anything.

“I’m sorry for freaking out like that,” Keith mumbled shyly. “I’m sorry you have to put up with my crap all the time. You don’t-”

Lance interrupted. “Before you finish that, I do. I deserve you and you deserve me. Don’t apologize for that, you were worried and you had a right to be. I was acting a little fishy and probably straight up saying my ex was on my mind probably fanned the flames a bit. Okay?”

Keith nodded, and fell forward into Lance’s arms. They held each other for a few moments, Keith pressed his face into Lance’s shoulder and sighed deeply. “You’re wonderful. You’re so, so,  _ so  _ damn wonderful and fantastic to me, it makes me wonder what I did in a past life to land myself in a relationship with you. It’s only been a few months, but I’ve loved every second of it. You genuinely make me happy. But to be honest, you’re so beautiful and soft and sweet and I don’t think my gay heart can take it sometimes.”

A laugh shook Lance’s shoulders as he drew Keith closer and placed a kiss onto the side of his head. “Aw, Keith you’re being  _ sappy!” _

Keith jerked back to glare at Lance. “You were sappy first, sap.”

Lance gasped. “It was in the moment! I can’t help being sappy when I’m with you! All I wanna do is write love sonnets and pick flowers for you when I’m with you.”

“All I wanna do is touch your butt and make you smile, then,” Keith said.

“You’re not- oh now you are,” Lance giggled. Keith gave Lance’s butt a good squeeze then lightly smacked it a couple times for emphasis. He angled his face upward a bit -not too high, their height difference was literally two inches- and gave Lance the softest kiss on the lips. Lance kissed back just as softly. They pulled back and took a moment to stare into each other’s eyes.

“You said something about a Souplantation coupon?” Lance broke the moment.

“Yeah, I snagged it from Shiro,” Keith said.

“Do you still wanna go? We could just go back to one of our places and watch  _ Parks and Rec _ ,” Lance suggested.

Keith’s stomach answered with a well timed growl. “Souplantation.”

“Let’s take the cars back to my place, then carpool over. Sound good?”

“Hey, how did you find me?” Keith realized. He pulled back a bit so he could properly furrow his brows at Lance.

“Oh, uh, Snap Map,” Lance said sheepishly.

“Snap Map?” Keith asked.

Lance fished his phone out of his pocket, unlocking it at an angle to show off his lockscreen, and opened up Snapchat. He zoomed out of the camera to-

“There’s a  _ map?!” _ Keith jerked back. “And you  _ tracked me _ with it?!”

“Uh, yeah. Look.” Lance zoomed into the map to show his and Keith’s Bitmojis standing together on the same lookout peak in the regional park. “It’s not accurate. Like last week it said I was sitting at the front of the library, but I was in the back.”

“Oh my God, can everyone see me?” Keith asked in muted horror. 

“Yeah. You don’t have your tracker off, so anyone with your Snapchat can see it.”

“Do you always just,  _ stalk _ me?”

“Hm, sometimes. I like to open the map when I’m bored and see where everyone’s at. Like I’d text Hunk when he’s at that bus stop by the Starbucks on Main to get me a drink.”

“I’m turning mine off,” Keith said sourly, tugging how own phone from his pocket.

Lance stumbled back with a laugh. “No, don’t! It’s fun seeing where everyone’s at!”

“Lance, that sounds creepy!”

“Well, yeah when I put it that way. . .”

“I turned it off,” Keith said with a note of finality, shoving his phone back into his pocket. “Get into your car, I’m craving the Souplantation pizza bread stuff.”

Lance rounded Keith back against his car and placed a tender kiss onto his lips, one that only lasted a couple seconds before he pulled back and traced his lips over to Keith’s ear. 

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, okay? I really do love you, and I’ll do anything to make sure you truly know that,” Lance said softly. He pecked Keith’s ear and pulled back with a smile. 

“Race you to your place.” The words were barely out of Lance’s mouth before he booked it around Keith’s car to his own.

“Why mine?”

“It’s closer and has non-shitty free parking.” Lance fumbled with his keys and hopped into the driver’s side at an alarming speed. “See you there, hotshot,” he said with the slam of his car door.

Keith laughed and climbed into his own car. He took a second (only a second, he still had a race to win) to stare over at Lance’s profile in the car next to his. Even through the two layers of windows and the awkward angle of the sun, he could still see the sharp profile of Lance’s nose, the curve of his upper lip, the little curl that refused to lay flat on the top of his head. He really loved this ridiculous man.

Keith started his car, Fall Out Boy blasting through the speakers once his bluetooth automatically connected. He rolled down the window and with a laugh and a wave of his middle finger, peeled out of the parking lot to race Lance home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMING UP NEXT Disneyland  
> main tumblr: canadiangothstalker  
> art tumblr: mirai-eats  
> twitter: mirai_eats

**Author's Note:**

> haha eye emoji  
> polyvore got CANCELLED and im still so MAD ABout all that and they didnt even email me my stuff im so sknfkdjaajdf  
> main tumblr: canadiangothstalker  
> art tumblr: mirai-eats  
> twitter: mirai_eats


End file.
